Navigation gets greener after WWF proposal in Romania

Romanian road, navigation and rail transport gets greener after WWF proposals

Future road, navigation and rail transport projects in Romania will include nature conservation proposals by WWF. The Romanian Transportation Master Plan until 2030 has taken into account most WWF Romania measures. The drafting process lasted two years.

Infrastructure development is a priority for both the European Union (EU) and Romania and a large part of the funds for the next programing period is dedicated to transport.

However, this brings high risks to biodiversity and subsequent social and economic costs. Habitat fragmentation from transport is a major threat to species and solving this problem has become an EU concern.

Compared to the rest of Europe, Romania still has rich natural habitats inhabited by a very big part of the continent’s large carnivores and rare species, like sturgeons. (No wonder Romania is among the 12 countries of WWF’s Green Heart of Europe initiative.) The habitats can only be maintained if land use plans include an obligation to preserve the connectivity between their migration corridors.

The first version of the 2030 Transportation Master Plan published in 2012 did not contain any reference to biodiversity conservation. WWF developed a set of requirements and submitted them for debate. In January 2015, most WWF proposals were included.

What this means is that future projects will consider routes that avoid negative impact on all types of protected areas in Romania, including Natura 2000 sites, but also areas that are not formally protected, if they are inhabited by endangered species. Also, infrastructure plans will include animal passageways, corridors, tunnels, noise insulating panels, nets and others.

The impact of navigation on river species is also going to be considered, particularly in respect to sturgeons. They are the most critically endangered group of species on earth, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

A third important development is that the planning of transport projects will now take into account the time necessary to collect biodiversity scientific data in order to protect species best, as well as the cost of this process.

Adapting to climate change is also considered in the 2030 Transportation Master Plan. Among the measures are avoiding deforestation and maintaining wetlands.

WWF will closely follow Romania’s transport projects, particularly in road and navigation, to make sure environment measures are implemented both on paper and in reality.

More on sturgeons
Sturgeons are subject to various national and international protection regulations. Nevertheless, their populations have drastically decreased between 2002 and 2005. This is why in 2005 the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Environment established a complete 10-year fishing ban, which in 2012 was supplemented by measures to recover and conserve sturgeon populations in natural habitats and develop sturgeon aquaculture farms.
In 2009, sturgeons became representative of the Danube within the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. However, scientific data on the species is still fragmentary or absent for large segments of the Danube.

In view of the national and international financial effort already made to maintain the species -- nearly €2 million in Romania for restocking, and at least €12 million in EU funds for Romania and Bulgaria -- as well as the sensitivity of sturgeon to hydro-morphological alterations, WWF considers it very important to collect further scientific data on sturgeons when planning transportation projects. It is also necessary to avoid navigation project work during sturgeons’ reproduction periods in the areas identified as breeding areas, as well as in wintering habitats.

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